KARACHI: The Awami Tehreek (AT) staged a 12-kilometre-long march in the metropolis on Sunday to protest against the federal government’s plan to construct six canals on the Indus River and the proposed amendments to the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Act.

Carrying placards and banners, a number of AT workers, including women and children, marched from Ghaghar Phatak to Gulshan-i-Hadeed to register their protest. The march was led by AT’s central president, Advocate Vasand Thari and vice president, Hooralnisa Palijo.

Addressing the participants, Thari accused the Pakistan Peoples Party leadership of approving six canals, calling it a deliberate conspiracy to deprive Sindh of its water resources.

He criticised Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for misleading public with false statements, while the PPP government actively supported strategic canals project, corporate farming and other initiatives that threatened Sindh’s survival.

Thari warned that constructing new canals on the Indus River is even more dangerous than the Kalabagh Dam.

He asserted that the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) had been created to sell the country’s resources. Bilawal-Shehbaz coalition government was auctioning off national assets to safeguard elite interests, he said.

Thari warned the corporate farming would lead to food shortages, mass displacement of local farmers, hunger, poverty and unemployment. Such policies would strip ordinary citizens of land ownership, transferring control to foreign corporations, he said.

He criticised amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), stating that these changes were intended to suppress freedom of speech and attack democratic rights. The ruling establishment was implementing every possible measure to keep the people subjugated, he said.

He urged the government to immediately withdraw corporate farming and canals projects before they caused irreversible damage to Sindh’s people and resources.

SHC, PPP-SB also hold marches

Activists of Sindh Hari Committee (SHC) staged a march in Hyderabad and PPP-Shaheed Bhutto workers took out a procession in Badin on Sunday to record a protest against canals project.

Led by SHC chief Samar Jatoi, the march started from Hyder Chowk in Hyderabad and culminated outside the local press club where Mr Jatoi said that Wapda chairman was making wrong statements about water availability.

He said that those who claimed downstream Kotri barrage flows were wastage of water were completely wrong. These flows were necessary for keeping the ecosystem intact in Indus delta, he said.

Jatoi stated that as per Water Apportionment Accord 1991 at least 10MAF water flows were to be released downstream Kotri. Wapda chairman’s statement describing downstream flows as wastage was sheer violation of the accord, he said.

He said that Wapda chairman had said the Sindh government was taken on board regarding all water projects therefore it was incumbent upon the provincial government to clarify its position on Sindh’s water. PPP was working with the federal government and it was against the interest of people of Sindh, he said.

In Badin, a large number of activists of Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto took out a procession from Allah Wala roundabout to Awan-i-Sahafat on Sunday in protest against construction of six canals on the Indus River.

The protesters led by PPP-SB Badin chapter office-bearers Shahnawaz alais Shani Gaghro, Ali Ahmad alias Karo Sheedi and others said that if Mir Murtaza Bhutto were alive this day, he would never have allowed the construction of canals on the Indus. The PPP, which had been in power in Sindh for third tenure, was hatching conspiracies against the province, they said.

They demanded Chief Justice of Pakistan take immediate notice of the illegal canals project and play his role to get it withdrawn to safeguard interests of Sindh.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2025